On War & Society

Jewish people are traditionally depicted as victims in the Second World War literature. This should come as no surprise, as six million Jews were killed at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. Ellin Bessner, in her new book Double Threat, insists that at least in the case of Jewish Canadians, they were not just victims of the war but also active players in the eventual victory of the Allies against Germany and the Axis powers during the Second World War. Canadian Jews enlisted at the same proportional rates as the rest of Canada and served valiantly and bravely in the face of an enemy that not only wanted to see them defeated in battle but exterminated from the face of the earth. References Irving Abella and Harold Troper. None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933–1948. Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1983. Ellin Bessner. Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military and World War II. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018.

Sometimes we find Canadians in the most unlikely of places. During the Second World War, within the crews of airmen responsible for breaching the Ruhr dams of Nazi Germany, there were thirty Canadians. In 1943, these men, along with about a hundred others, took to the skies in May 1943 aboard nineteen Lancaster Bombers to drop the now infamous bouncing bombs that would devastate enemy power plants, factories and German infrastructure after blowing up several dams. Now known as the Dam Busters, in this interview, Ted Barris discusses the deeds of these Canadian airmen and legacies they left behind. Ted Barris is a journalist and award-winning author of 18 books. He lived in Oxbow, Ontario. References Ted Barris. Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen and the Secret Raid on Nazi Germany (Toronto: HarperCollins, 2018).

The contribution of nurses to attend to the wounded was essential to military care and recovery during the First World War. Less noted is the role of the middle class and educated, though largely unqualified, women who assisted in filling in the gaps at overburdened hospitals and convalescent homes as voluntary nurses. In this episode, guest host Kyle Pritchard sits down with Linda Quiney to discuss her research on the Canadian Voluntary Aid Detachment in her new book, This Small Army of Women. Women drawn to voluntary medical service sought a mixed sense of camaraderie, patriotism and adventure. Yet many experienced difficult and mundane work as a result of hostility from professional nurses and doctors who doubted their abilities. While some continued in emerging disciplines like physiotherapy and dietetics after they returned to Canada, others found it difficult to continue in the medical field. Whether they married or continued on in another career, Linda suggests that the majority of women went back to t

Sometimes we forget that the field of war and society encompasses so much more than Canada. Many of the guests we've had on our show study the history of war and society in Canada, but in this episode, Wilson Bell speaks about the Soviet Gulag system during the Second World War and his new book, Stalin's Gulag at War. Wilson Bell is an associate professor of history at Thompson Rivers University. He is the author of numerous articles on the Gulag, and his first book, Stalin’s Gulag at War, was published in 2018 with the University of Toronto Press. References Wilson T. Bell, Stalin's Gulag at War: Forced Labour, Mass Death, and Soviet Victory during the Second World War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018).

Shell shock has become a stand-in for the experience of all soldiers of the First World War. And it has also become one of the most popular topics of inquiry for historians of the First World War. Mark Humphries, associate professor history at Wilfrid Laurier University and Director of the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, has contributed another addition to the ever-growing literature on the topic with his new book on shell shock in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War. Looking at the experience of doctors and patients as well as the medical management system that developed overseas, he investigates how shell shock was managed and mismanaged and how the search for a solution remained elusive. References Mark Osborne Humphries, A Weary Road: Shell Shock in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914–1918. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018. 

We know a lot about the urban experience during the First World War in Canada but far less about the rural equivalent. Canadian historians sometimes assume––and quite wrongly––that the urban Canadian experience of the war can stand in for the rural. But it can't. Jonathan Vance's new book A Township at War shows that the conventional narrative of the First World War in Canada did not match that of East Flamborough from 1914 to 1918. Prohibition, conscription, suffrage, enemy alien internment––these are the issues encountered time and again when writing about the First World War. But in a small rural southern Ontario community, these were not the pressing issues of the day. The issues were starkly different. Jonathan F. Vance is a Distinguished University Professor and J.B. Smallman Chair in the Department of History at Western University where he teaches military history, Canadian history and social memory. He is the author of many books and articles, including Death So Noble (1997), Unlikely Soldiers (2008),

Since the late 1990s, Canadian historian Tim Cook has carved out a niche in the field of First World War history. In his two-volume social history of the war, he spoke of a soldiers’ culture, which bound Canadians together on the battlefields and helped them cope with the immense stress and strain of war from 1914 to 1918. This year, published with Allen Lane, Tim released The Secret History of Soldiers, a book dedicated solely to this soldiers’ culture that has become his most significant contribution to our understanding of the First World War in Canada. Tim speaks of a few of the aspects of this soldiers’ culture, including swearing, slang and material objects. At the end of the war, this culture did not necessarily disappear. In Legion halls and reunions, veterans recreated this culture in a civilian world, however temporary it might have been. Tim Cook is the First World War historian at the Canadian War Museum. He is the author of 11 books, including Shock Troops, Vimy and most recently, The Secret Hist

Tim Cook loves to write. As many Canadian historians will attest, Tim is one of the most prolific writers in the profession––both in terms of volume and content. Since 1998, Tim has published a dozen books on the First and Second World Wars, greatly advancing our knowledge of both. But how does he do it? In this month’s episode, Tim discusses the process of researching and writing, as well as his new book, The Secret History of Soldiers, published with Allen Lane this year. In a jaw-dropping statement, Tim revealed how many words he writes per week. Tim Cook is the First World War historian at the Canadian War Museum. He has published a dozen books on the history of the First and Second World Wars and is the recipient of many awards for his writing including the RBC Taylor Prize, the J.W. Dafoe Prize (twice) and the C.P. Stacey Prize (twice). He was recently awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Governor General's History Award for Popular Media. Tim is a Member of the Order of Canada. References

Military families are essential to the care of veterans in both the past and present. Yet current veteran policies and programs do not fully provide the necessary services military families require for the process of healing and recovery. For the final episode of our four-part series on the past and present experiences of veterans in Canada, two scholars, a veteran and a caregiver continue their discussion of the effects of military service on veterans’ families. Drawing comparisons between veteran and family experiences during the First World War and the present, the guests discuss current research and the challenges mental trauma places on the family dynamic. These challenges include recognizing the sacrifices of military spouses and the risk of intergenerational trauma being passed down to veterans’ children. The discussion reveals how the fears of veterans and their families have been shaped by changes in government responsibilities to the veteran community over the past century and how this history conti

Soldiers returning from the battlefield rarely return unscathed. Yet veterans’ families continue to be inadequately prepared for the difficulties of military life. For episode three of four on the past and present experiences of veterans in Canada, two scholars and two veterans discuss the effects of veteran deployment and eventual discharge on military family well-being. Their discussion reveals the need to listen to military family advocates to better inform policy, but also how many military families are unaware of the financial and emotional support available, and the fear of admitting vulnerability that sometimes prevents veterans and military families from receiving the therapeutic, financial and community assistance they require. This episode in funded by the Department of National Defence. It is hosted by Dr. Geoffrey Hayes of the University of Waterloo. Panelists are Dr. Jessica Meyer, Dr. Deborah Norris, Jody Mitic and Kim Davis.

Wars often time come home. Reintegration into civilian life comes with a whole new set of challenges for veterans. For the second part of our four-part series on the past and present experiences of veterans in Canada, two historians and two veterans discuss the instability of civilian life for many veterans after having served in the military. Mental trauma, both sustained on the battlefield and even after returning home, contributes to this instability, as the government and larger Canadian society fails to understand the challenges many veterans face. This episode is funded by the Department of National Defence. It is hosted by Dr. Amy Milne-Smith of Wilfrid Laurier University’s History Department. Panelists are Dr. Mark Humphries, Dr. Claire Cookson-Hills, Bruce Moncur and Marie-Claude Gagnon.

Too often we forget the casualties of war. Whether on film, in novels and even in writing history, scenes of soldiering and warfare pervade while the aftermath is ignored. Nationalism is deeply intertwined with many twenty and twenty-first century wars, making it sometimes difficult to acknowledge war’s painful legacies. Over the next few months, we are hoping to counter that narrative by bringing the historical and contemporary experiences of Canadian veterans to the fore.  This episode is part one of two on the past and present experiences of veterans in Canada. A panel consisting of two historians and two veterans discuss issues relating to mental health and trauma among Canadian veterans of twentieth and twenty-first century wars. This episode is funded by the Department of National Defence. It is hosted by Dr. Amy Milne-Smith of Wilfrid Laurier University’s History Department. Panelists are Dr. Mark Humphries, Dr. Claire Cookson-Hills, Bruce Moncur and Marie-Claude Gagnon.

Since 2014, there has been an outpouring of literature on the First World War that has moved the field in exciting new directions. Over thirty books have been released by Canadian academic presses over the past almost four years, including titles on conscription, shell shock, and the memory of the war. But before these books were published, Mark Humphries wrote an intriguing 2014 article in the Canadian Historical Review about the historiography of the First World War in Canada and where he thought the field should lead next. Among several other revealing insights, he urged future scholars to adopt a transnational approach that would challenge the exceptionalist literature that characterizes Canadian First World War history-writing. But where has the field gone since? Mark has some thoughts. Mark is the director of the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, the Dunkley Chair in War and the Canadian Experience and an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Wilfrid Laurier Un

Nearly 660,000 bags of mail were sent to Canada from soldiers in France and Belgium during the First World War. In this episode, Dr. Kristine Alexander sits down with Kyle Pritchard to discuss her research on the topic of families, children, and letter-writing during the First World War. Kristine is an associate professor in history, a Canadian Research Chair, and Director of the Institute for Child and Youth Studies at the University of Lethbridge. Her book Guiding Modern Girlspublished in 2017, examines the connections which linked girlhood with colonialism and empire in the post-war and inter-war periods. In her new research, Kristine contends that letter-writing is a valuable entry point into the study of family under wartime conditions and finds that a more critical approach to these letters reveal soldiers often defied the emotional tropes historians have assigned to them. References  Alexander, Kristine.Guiding Modern Girls: Girlhood, Empire, and Internationalism in the 1920s and 1930s. Vancouver: UBC

Billy Bishop is one of the most recognizable names in the military history of Canada. He was Canada’s top ace during the First World War, credited with over seventy victories during his career as a pilot with Royal Flying Corps. But there were many other pilots whose names have been forgotten because of Bishop’s looming shadow. Graham Broad, associate professor of history at King’s College at Western University, has uncovered the story of another ace, Eddie McKay, from London, Ontario. In this episode, Broad talks about not only the story of McKay, but also the process of researching and writing the story of McKay. References Graham Broad, One in a Thousand: The Life and Death of Captain Eddie McKay, Royal Flying Corps. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017.

Discussions of the First World War in Europe are dominated by the events that transpired in France, Great Britain and Germany. But on the periphery of Europe, fascinating local, regional, national and international conflicts were also at play. The Finnish Civil War was one of these interesting, peripheral events. Fought between the socialist Reds and the anti-Russian Whites, the civil war began with a Red coup d’état and a White-led mass imprisonment of thousands of Russian army soldiers in January 1918. Few agree on who started the conflict, but the result was nonetheless tragic. More than 36,000 people were killed in just three and a half months. The legacies of the civil war were far-reaching. In the following decades, Finns left their home country in search for a new life. The political ideologies that were so stark during the Finnish Civil War remained for generations. Guest: Alec Maavara References Maavara, Alec. Finland Divided: The Finnish Civil War 1918. Finland Divided. https://finlanddivided.wordpr

The image of the mushroom cloud, commonly associated with a nuclear explosion, provides a stark reminder of the power and devastation of the atomic age. Aware of the horrible circumstances involving Hiroshima and Nagasaki, few may realize the full extent of nuclear weapons testing in the postwar period. Dr. Martha Smith-Norris, an associate professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan, explores this topic in her recent book, Domination and Resistance: The United States and the Marshall Islands during the Cold War. The United States seized the Marshall Islands from Japan toward the end of the Second World War and in the years that followed conducted extensive nuclear weapons and missile testing in this region of the central Pacific. Military testing in the Marshalls reinforced the US strategy of deterrence, but as Martha tell us, grand strategy and nuclear politics came with drastic consequences for the local population. Not only did the United States test nuclear bombs and missiles in the Marshall I

Post-traumatic stress order (or PTSD) remains a prominent issue within the Canadian military and has affected thousands of veterans who returned home. At the end of 2017, the Nova Scotia government announced that an inquiry will be made after a veteran shot and killed his daughter, wife and mother, then hanged himself in 2016. It is suspected that he had PTSD. Cases such as these have been featured in the media after many wars in the past, not just the more recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Dr. Meghan Fitzpatrick, a postdoctoral fellow in War Studies at the Royal Military College in Kingston, ON, just published a book on mental trauma during one of these past wars––the Korean War from 1950–53. She visited the studio to discuss her book, the various ways the military treated mental trauma on the battlefields of Korea, and also the costs of that trauma when soldiers returned home. At the end of the conflict, many veterans became disentangled in the politics of memory, as the conflict in Korea was not v

Many have fallen down the rabbit hole of over-researching. Telling the entire story is tempting, but it is an unattainable standard. Reconstructing the past out a series of texts simply cannot measure up to the multifaceted and dynamic realities of an all-encompassing history. And so it is imperative that historians abandon this idealized goal––if not for the sake of time, at least then for one’s sanity. Dr. Geoff Hayes, an associate professor of history at the University of Waterloo, visited us this month to talk about his new book Crerar’s Lieutenants. But before we discussed its content, Geoff talked about the challenges of the project, from the initial search to the eventual discovery of a satisfactory framework, and the necessity of imposing self-limitations on one’s historical research. Crerar’s Lieutenants unfolded over a period of many years, during which several drafts of the eventual manuscript were written. And with each revision, a new story was told. It wasn’t until he began to explore the Junior

The Conscription Crisis was the central political conflict of the First World War, affecting not only the Canadian government but having an immediate impact on over 400,000 Canadians who were registered for conscription with the intention of being sent overseas. Historians have focused on national divisions between English and French, rural and urban, and the working and middle class, but what has often been lost in these debates are those most directly impacted by conscription – the conscripts themselves. With four of his own ancestors conscripted and casualties of the First World War, Patrick Dennis, in his recently released book, Reluctant Warriors, sheds new light on both the events which led to the decision of the Canadian government to enact conscription in 1917, and the vital contribution made by these conscripts during the Hundred Days campaign of 1918. Guest host Kyle Pritchard sits down with Patrick to discuss his research on the experiences of Canadian conscripts and the present-day legacies of con